Atheist Meme of the Day: Popularity Still /= Truth

Today's Atheist Meme of the Day, from my Facebook page. Pass this on; or don't; or edit it as you see fit; or make up your own. Enjoy!

"Lots of people believe in God, therefore God must be real" is a terrible argument for religion. People can be mistaken -- and large groups of people can be very good at reinforcing one another's mistaken beliefs. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

Comments

[Lana]

That is one of the silliest arguments for religion. I'm sometimes asked "Millions of people believe in god. Do you think they're all wrong?"

Well, yes. Millions of Muslims think Mohammad flew to heaven on a horse. Millions of Hindus believe in reincarnation. Millions of Mormons think an angel appeared to Joseph Smith in upstate New York.

No matter what one believes, there are millions who say you're right and millions more who say you're wrong.

The many different religions helped me realize there is no god. They couldn't all be right but they could all be wrong.

[Maria]

Yeah, and billions of flies can't be wrong, so... eat shit!

It amazes me that people can find arguments like this convincing

[arensb.livejournal.com]

I've also run into the opposite version of that:

Theist: <some argument for God>
Atheist: But the same argument works for the Invisible Pink Unicorn and the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Theist: Yes, but nobody seriously thinks that those exist.

[Maria]

@ arensb

*LOL* Yes, isn't that funny? I keep running into that often since I often make comparisons between god and other fictional characters. Don't know why I keep doing that since they seem to keep missing the point... There have been at least three different theists here on the blog recently who got rather... angry, I think, at the comparison. Do I really think they believe such nonsense as fairys and the like??? How dare I!!? As if the beliefs they actually DO have is any less weird! Which is of course what I try to point out.